The objective of tonight's class was to stop the aggressor's attacks and put them on the defensive. This was accomplished in several different ways. Once example would simply be to disrupt the caster's spell, poison them and as they attempt to cure go in to an offensive attack. We practiced this for several minutes and slowly started adding more aspects to the training such as mana management and see-sawing the attacks. All students were paired up with a sparring partner. The sparring only paused for each group when someone was killed.

See-Sawing the Battle

This is just a saying for the back and forth offensive and defensive switching that goes on in a fight. If player A goes on the attack and player B successfully defends and turn the tide to go offensive, it is player A's goal to go defensive and stay alive until the opportunity arises to turn the tide back and go offensive. Hence "See-Saw".

Mana Management

Mana management is all about knowing how much mana you have, when you should stop casting spells and go defensive to restore mana, and estimating your opponents mana. You can actively use the Evaluate Intelligence skill and target your opponent to get a rough percentage of mana they have left, or you can just guesstimate based on what they have cast so far.

Knowing when to say when doesn't just apply to alcohol. One of the biggest downfalls that a person can do is just mindlessly cast spells in hopes that they will kill their opponent, even after the opponent has healed up and it is literally impossible to deal the needed damage to kill them. If you do this you will be out of mana and your opponent will have almost all of theirs and you. will. die.

Once you have spent your mana and it becomes obvious that you cannot finish the job with the amount of mana remaining, STOP CASTING AND START REGENERATING. You will need to shift defensively and be prepared for the attack. The goal is always make your opponent use up their mana so you have the advantage. They can easily spend 40-50 mana on offensive spells that can be nullified with one Greater Heal that only costs 11 mana. If you cast Explosion/E-bolt/Poison and the poison does stick and they Greater Heal themselves, you just spent 49 mana and they sent 11. You are now at a huge disadvantage and you need to switch to defense and smartly let them start spending their mana. If they go for the dump and you survive then you could be with half your mana and they be completely out. While you cant kill them most likely with half mana, you now have the upper hand as you both have to meditate and you will reach full mana by the time they are half way full.

Practice ,Practice, Practice mana management. It is that important.

We will meet at the University on Friday 9/29/18 @ 9:30pm EST. The plan for that evening is to attend Erza's PvP Tournament so that we can learn from watching other's play styles, combos, and tactics. I encourage any and all to enter if only for the experience of fighting someone who you do not have communication or "friendly terms" with. It's good for the nerves